“Do you bear the mark of wounds from God’s sovereign hand?”

Dianne and I read a lot of things. But we can both point to one little xeroxed article shared by Pastor John a long time ago, written by a man named Michael Beates, as having much greater influence than anyone could have expected. The Holy Spirit used that article to build a little piece of foundational trust in God and the Bible.

Dr. Beates has written a book. You should buy it.

He has lived this life longer than I have. He has thought about the questions we think about longer than I have. He has studied the Bible longer than I have. He has certainly trusted God in the hard circumstances of his family life longer than I have.

And he asks and answers hard questions:

Do you bear the mark of wounds from God’s sovereign hand?

You and I can take heart because this means we are in his hand.

And he promises that no one (and Romans 8 expands on this) can take us out of his hand.

His grasp on those he loves is firm, immovable, eternal, and unshakable.

And at the end of the day, no matter how hard the day may prove to be, that is a good thing!

I had hoped to do a proper book review but that just isn’t going to happen. You can read the short article Pastor John sent, and then read an excerpt at Crossway’s site to get a taste. Then buy and read the rest of the book.